Locked up: Polish man Michael Minorczyk, who moved to Britain to find work, has become one of the first men in the UK to be jailed for squatting

A Polish man who moved to Britain to find work has been jailed under tough new anti-squatting laws for refusing to move out of an empty house where he had been sleeping.

Former soldier Michael Minorczyk, 27, was arrested by police after defying requests to move out of the empty property in Blackburn.

The Polish immigrant, who exploited EU border control policies to settle in the UK in 2005 only to end up homeless and an alcoholic, was prosecuted following the scrapping of squatters rights in September last year.

At Blackburn Magistrates' Court in Lancashire, Minorczyk pleaded guilty to a new squatting offence and was jailed for 15 weeks.

The court heard Minorczyk was arrested on January 31 after police acting on a tip off found him inside the boarded up property in New Wellington Street, Blackburn, which is empty due to renovation.

The officers got into the house through a broken door and could see Minorczyk was sleeping on a makeshift bed in a downstairs room.

They woke him up and told him he was squatting and had to leave and was told not to return.

But 20 minutes later police returned to check on the house and found him back inside the property lying in a drunken stupor sleeping in the same makeshift bed. He was arrested when he refused to leave.

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In mitigation Ian Huggan, defending, said Minorczyk had come to the UK from Poland in 2005. He got a job and everything was fine until the breakdown of his relationship.

He returned to Poland 'to straighten his head' but when he came back to Blackburn found that his former partner had started a new relationship.

Prosecuted: Michael Minorczyk defied police requests to move out of an empty house where he had been bedding down at night

'He had hoped to reconcile the relationship and was unable to cope with the situation he was faced with,' said Mr Huggan.

'He started to drink and unfortunately the drink has taken over his life. He hasn't caused any difficulties other than being in a property he shouldn't have been in.'

PROSECUTION FOLLOWS TOUGH CHANGES TO SQUATTING LAWS

Michael Minorczyk has been jailed following a successful prosecution under new squatting laws.

Previously, police could not evict squatters as soon as they moved into somebody's property.

So a homeowner's main option to get them out was through a civil court order - which could be time consuming and costs many tens of thousands of pounds.

These rules were changed and new legislation introduced in September last year.

The new offence protects homeowners or legitimate tenants who have been excluded from their homes. It will also protect those who own residential buildings that they don't live in, such as landlords, local authorities or second home owners.

But homeless charity Crisis said the new law would criminalise vulnerable people, leaving them in prison or facing a fine they cannot pay.

Last August Minorczyk gave an interview to a local newspaper investigating street drinking in the town - with many of the culprits being men and women, from Eastern Europe.

He said: 'I came to England with my girlfriend in 2005 but shortly after we broke up. I started work but with the spiralling economy, I ended up losing my job and finding myself sleeping on my friend's sofa and drinking hard, which he didn't like.

'I returned home to Poland for a short time before eventually returning to Blackburn where I found myself living on the streets.

'I now sleep in the abandoned cars in King Street. I am an alcoholic and I need alcohol to survive. I have recently started suffering severe fits and if I don't drink they get worse. I am scared I am going to die.

'I often drink up to six litres of Frosty Jacks cider in a day. I am going into rehab. I don't want to be like this anymore.

'I get in trouble with the police for stealing so I can pay for drink. I have been doing this for seven years and that is too long.'

Last September a 21-year-old squatter Alex Haigh, from Plymouth was arrested at a flat in Pimlico, central London and was jailed for 12 weeks under the anti squatting legislation.

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Polish immigrant jailed for squatting after refusing to leave house when told to by police